With demand outpacing supply, the metro's average vacancy rate of 4.3 percent is near the historical low of 4.2 percent set in the third quarter of 2015.
The low vacancy rate, combined with the development trend toward more upscale units, pushed the metro's average apartment rent in the second quarter to another historic peak of $930 — a 3.3 percent increase over the year-ago figure.
According to CBRE, average rents within the 128,166-unit metro market varied last quarter from a low of $690 in the Southwest Kansas City submarket to a high of $1,500 in the University/Plaza submarket. Other higher rent submarkets were Downtown, $1,177; and Overland Park South, $1,068.
Plaza avg still quite a bit higher than downtown avg despite a lot of high end going in downtown and a free streetcar.
Apartment demand hits four-year high in KC metro, report finds
...
Demand reached a four-year high in the Kansas City area in the second quarter, a RealPage report found. Regionally, the only cities ahead of Kansas City for quarterly apartment demand are Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, according to a RealPage release.
...
The driving factor for apartment demand, he said, is job creation. And it’s a national trend RealPage has seen: Job creation encourages people to move to an area. From April to June alone, almost 2,000 units were rented in the area.
Occupancy rates stand firm at 95%, a rise of 0.7 percentage points from the first quarter. More than 2,500 units “were filled in the last year,” according to the release, meaning absorption almost met annual supply. Average monthly rent of $966 was an increase of 2% — 1% behind national price increases.
...
